Republic of Olympia
The Republic of Olympia is a large, confederate wasteland republic and the Pacific Northwest's dominant power in the year 2287. The former capital of Washington State, Olympia, is the new Republic's capital as well, and its origin. Olympia's borders extend far south towards Oregon, westward to the Pacific Coast, up into Olympic State Park and east over the Cascades to the plains town of Wheatgrass. The Republic's population is disparate, and the bulk of the citizenry lives along the southern expanse, in spread out farming communities that border each other in a wide net. The north has more wilderness, with the people generally clustered into four major population centers: Olympia itself, Ferrus Mills, Port Blackwater and Wheatgrass. The current President of the Republic is Jane Shasta, a young woman from the Marchers party, but she is opposed in an upcoming election by Colonel Abraham Vincent, leader of both the Republic's militia and the newer Preservation party. The heart of the Republic though is its Conference, a vast, unicameral legislative body that is prone to increasingly complex political maneuvers, as with such a spread out populace, each representative is elected with very specific, localized goals in mind. Background The Republic was formed first as the City of Olympia, when several hamlets of wastelanders living to the west of its ruins were recruited by a man named Thomas Roquefort, at the time mayor of Ferrus Mills. He had finally brought the factory at the Mills back online, and with the help of his two chief engineers, they promised to return a chunk of the downtown city to livable conditions if the nearby villagers gave their labor to the project. So it was that Olympia was turned into a large settlement of its own with a newly relocated population and Roquefort as its leader. Almost immediately arrangements were made with other towns to the south, binding them all together into one. But the first eight years consisted entirely of unofficial arrangements, as the Republic itself was not chartered until 2217. Once the first Conference was formed, expansion came at an even more rapid pace as villages to the south seized the chance to become a county in a larger nation, with access to more resources. Growth eventually ground down to a near halt in 2259 after the coastal town of Port Blackwater was brought into the fold. In 2278, the last major expansion of the Republic took place, though in a different form than previously known. Led by the Marchers, Olympia undertook its first actual effort at colonization and resettlement, striking out in expedition over the Cascades and building the town of Wheatgrass from scratch in the eastern plains. Organization Government An operating, legitimate democracy, the Republic has two major chambers of centralized power. The first is the office of the Presidency, who is responsible for administering the widespread government amongst the hamlets and villages of the Republic, serving as the leader of the Republic’s army, directing foreign policy, and overseeing regional authorities. The second is the Republic Conference, Olympia’s single chamber legislature. The President is nominally a member of the Conference, with the ability to cast a vote worth three compared to the one vote per Representative otherwise allotted. However, the President is barred from the Conference at all times except for voting, and must rely upon their allies within the chamber to direct policy. With so many specific interests represented, Conference politics are a cutthroat and shady business, requiring the most prominent amongst their number to be well versed in underhanded tactics. Regionally, three Vice Presidents serve as local authorities. Their roles are more as governors, but are elected by the Conference. There is a Vice President for the south, east and west. They manage the implementation of the President's agenda in each region and settle local disputes and issues. Military The Republic maintains a small standing army of fully trained soldiers who are under the command of the President. Republic soldiers are trained in a traditional prewar style that imitates both remnant military attitudes and the reflections of those found in the NCR’s forces. Soldiers of the Olympian Army, or the Regulars as they're often called by citizens, are disciplined and well trained. They are equipped with standardized gear produced in Ferrus Mills and are organized into a traditional military hierarchy. Energy weapons are scarce in the Republic, and as such are hoarded within the Army's new Cronos Company, an elite unit trained to handle energy weapons and HAZMAT operations. The other elite unit in the Army ranks are the members of Silver Platoon, a T-51 power armor squadron used as shock troops. Due to the Regular's small size compared to the area and population of the Republic, the bulk of the Republic's armed forces come in the form of their Militia, a decentralized volunteer force. Responsible for providing local protection in places the Army isn't, the Militia has recently become more centralized under the leadeshipr of its current Colonel, Abraham Vincent. The former Southern Vice President, Vincent has become obsessed with the prospect of war with the NCR in the south, and as such resigned his post to take the reins of the Militia and turn them into a much more permanent group.